Trump Fires US Attorney Preet Bharara After He Refuses To Quit

The speculation over whether Trump would or would not fire the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, who earlier reportedly said he would not resign on his own, came to a close a 2:29pm ET when Preet Bharara, tweeting from his private Twitter account, announced he had been fired.

"I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life."

I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.

Bharara’s dismissal ended an "extraordinary" showdown in which a political appointee who was named by Mr. Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, declined an order to submit a resignation.

“I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life,” Mr. Bharara wrote on his personal Twitter feed, which he set up in the last two weeks. Bharara was among 46 holdover Obama appointees who were called by the acting deputy attorney general on Friday and told to immediately submit resignations and plan to clear out of their offices. But Bharara, who was called to Trump Tower for a meeting with the incoming president in late November 2016, declined to do so.

As reported previously, Bharara said he was asked by Trump to remain in his current post at the meeting. Bharara met with Trump at Trump Tower, and then addressed reporters afterward. Before the firing, one of New York’s top elected Republicans voiced support for Bharara on Saturday.

The Southern District of New York, which Bharara has overseen since 2009, encompasses Manhattan, Trump’s home before he was elected president, as well as the Bronx, Westchester, and other counties north of New York City. Last weekend, Trump accused Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower in Manhattan, an allegation which various Congressmen have said they will launch a probe into.

And now the speculation will begin in earnest why just three months after Bharara, who at the time was conducting a corruption investigation into NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio as well as into aides of NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, told the press that Trump had asked him to "stay on" he is being fired and whether this may indicate that the NYSD has perhaps opened a probe into Trump himself as some have speculated. For more on the unexpected break between the two, read here.

Earlier on Saturday, ProPublica's Jesse Eisinger proposed some good ideas in tweet format over the tension between Trump and Bharara, as follows:

The Preet Bharara drama began with a mystery: Why did Trump ask him to stay on in November, after their meeting in Trump Tower?

I suspect in Bharra's imagination, the fact that the president-elect personally asked him to stay meant that he would until the president directly asked him to step aside. In his mind, perhaps, a general form letter from an underling was not sufficient to override a presidential request.

well, let's think this through. we think we know some good things about ol' Preet: he's looking hard at Pizzagate! he's looking hard at Hillary! he's looking hard at that laptop! he's thinking of going after Deblasio! etc etc

coupla notes about all that: a) notice how all that hard-ass upcoming prosecution is all hypothetical? b) even after, in some cases, YEARS of "looking at"? c) and who tells us all this 'looking at' bullshit? well, that'd be the state-run media, right? the same media that's been busted hard for political bias? the same media that's been busted for 'every single thing they report about Trump is a lie'. right?

here are the only 4 facts I actually know about Bharara, as confirmed by multiple sources from multiple ideological bents.

1) Obama appointed him

2) Obama liked him so much, thought he was *such* a good little democrat soldier that he was on the shortlist to replace Holder as AG

3) Preet liked Obama so much he donated to his campaign

4) Preet was the guy who put Dinesh D'Souza in prison for a nickel-n-dime political donation infraction, which even Alan Dershowitz said was "selective prosecution", all while never quite getting around to putting Hillary, Bill, Barry, or Weiner in a courtroom.

Additionally (and am I the only one who sees this or what?) all the allegations that Trump 'wanted him to stay' are coming from one source -this guy. Yet, they are treated as gospel (at least by the author) I mean -he came up with 10 rhetorical questions and none of them were -"Would Parakeet (whatever) have anything to gain by claiming that Trump wanted him to stay in office?"

There is a very good reason that Bharara refused to resign = he knows the stakes which are being completely ignored by this post, along with all the rest of ONE MEDIA coverage/coverup. As mentioned in my comment previous today, the man is sitting upon the most explosive case of this young millennium; a case already put off to delayed trial date months away, because it was simply too hot for the incoming administration to handle - after being ortginally assigned to a January trial opening just after Trump's inaguration day.

It's also clear that the Trump who asked Preet to stay on in November is not the Trump who is being progressively sidelined by insiders working on behalf of the real power in D.C., and that he is no longer in charge of the agenda on calls like this. You can't get any real news on this for that simple reason - the fighting taking place behind closed doors over whether or not Reza Zarrab goes to trial is a bigger issue than all the rest of the messy infighting which has had nothing more than distraction value over the last two months.

Ditto with the most important aspect of the Flynn Fiasco. The man was lobbying for Turkey and receiving large cash payments to use his influence to block the trial as well as push for the Gulen extradition. As I said in my previous comment here:

"Gulen is but a distraction; this is the main event which keeps the Aksaray lights on all night."

The ONEMEDIA has dumped the Reza Zarrab/Preet Bharara/GOLD FOR OIL story out of sight... as more dangerous than a Fukushima wild boar. So, I think it's time to go there. At last.

Comey's first investigation of Hill'rey began August 2015 and was closed in July 2016 almost a full year.

Comey re-opened the second investigation October 28 2016 and was closed ~ November 6 2016 under two weeks.

Trump "You can't review 650,000 emails in 8 days".

My suspicion is something happened there that Trump knows about and I think we might find out on March 20. It was just about a week ago Comey asked the DOJ to disclaim that Obama was directly involved in the wiretap at Trump Tower and they have not and I have a hunch that both Trump and Comey know they can't.

/edit to be moar clear/

The dems demanded to investigate election tampering specifically by Russia and they will try to confine the scope to Russia only. That's on March 20. If Barkey spied on Trump that would be election tampering too. If Barkey or Lynch shut down Comey's 2nd investigation into pervert weiner's laptop, that would be electon tampering too. If Wasserman rigged the primaries that would be tampering. I know, if ifs and buts were candies and nuts...but the hearing could be a huge can of worms.

Because he cant. Except in cases of blatant malfeasance, Comey cant be fired. Thanks to J Edgar Hoover and his abuses, terms were limited to 10 years and not subject to removal for political reasons...you know, to protect the "integrity" of the FBI....Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity. Well, one out of 3 is not bad